Wagons Without Wheels: The Humble Land Sled

The Humble Land Sled by TomRobbins Wagons Without Wheels:

For many, the word sled brings to mind children sliding down snow covered hills, but for old-timers who grew up in rural areas where snow was a rarity, the word can trigger very different memories. On mountain farms of the past, what were sometimes called land sleds, ground sleds, or ground slides, were used year

round. Pulled by horses, mules, or steers, these “homegrown” pieces of farm equipment were employed for a variety of chores ranging from hauling firewood and crops to moving rocks out of fields.

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At left, a Southern mountain sled loaded with hay. Above, a Blackfoot Indian travois.

Although “dry land sleds” could be found throughout the mountains and many other rural areas, little has been written about them, especially when compared to other farm equipment like plows or wagons, even though they have a long and distinguished history that stretches back thousands of years.

The ground sled, or more appropriately “the sledge” to differentiate it from those used on snow, is the oldest type of vehicle used by humans to move cargo. Its ancestry dates to prehistory to the first humans who realized they could move their few possessions more efficiently with a simple conveyance. Those first prehistoric vehicles were nothing more than two parallel poles with a platform made of wood, fiber or animal skin attached between the poles, sort of a wheelbarrow, minus the wheel and pulled instead of pushed. By using one end of the COURTESY NATIONAL PARK ARCHIVES

poles as handles while the other end dragged on the ground, more cargo could be transported than could be carried on a person’s back.

The “A” frame sledge, which is usually referred to as a travois in dictionaries, is often associated with the Plains Indians of North America. It was well suited to their environment where the ends of the poles moved easily across the grass lands of the plains. Those tribes first employed dogs, then horses after they were introduced to the Americas by Europeans. Using a travois, a dog could haul 20-30 pounds of cargo while a horse could move 100 pounds or more.

The next step in the evolution of the sledge was the addition of runners. Just as with the travois, prehistoric people eventually discovered they could move larger loads using a vehicle with runners. This was especially true if the load was being moved across snow, ice, wet ground or even grass. The runners were made from poles or small logs with a platform attached to the tops of the runners. Depending on the size of the sled and the load, it was pulled by one or more people and later draft animals.

There is evidence of land sleds being used on large-scale ancient construction projects. Some archaeologists believe the massive stones of Stonehenge in England, which was built 4,000-5,000 years ago, were moved using large sledges. Based on the weight of the stones, it’s estimated that at least 500 men using ropes were needed to pull the sledges. The ancient Egyptians employed sledges to move the massive

Above, Jackson Ownby and his sons, Giles holding the reins and Lenard bringing up the rear, using a sled to haul wood for making shakes.

stone blocks used to build the pyramids. An Egyptian wall painting, dating back 4,000 years, shows 172 men hauling an immense statue by means of ropes attached to a large sledge. The oldest known existing sledge is a 4,600-year-old ceremonial chariot with runners that was found in a Sumerian (modern day southern Iraq) burial chamber.

All of this might seem to indicate that sledges are something relegated to the ancient past, especially after the invention of the wheel at least 5,500 years ago. One encyclopedia entry about sledges even goes so far as to say that, except for those sleds designed specifically for use on snow and ice, “the arrival of the wheel and axle ended the use of the sledge.” However, farm sleds continued in year-round use long after wheeled wagons were readily available and for the same reasons they were still in use on some farms well into the 20th century.

Historically, farm sleds were perfectly suited for use in the Southern mountains, where roads were sometimes nothing more than rough paths. Mountain residents even called these trails “sled roads” to indicate they were not suitable for any sort of wheeled vehicle. As one Smoky Mountain resident put it, “We just had sled roads. You couldn’t get over them with nothing but a sled..., and it’d go up over them big rocks and bumps.” Even place names like Sled Runner Gap on the North Carolina-Tennessee border are a reminder of how important these vehicles were in the past.

In addition to rough roads, the topography of some mountain farms was another reason for the continued use of farm

At right, Press Ogle with a typical small sled.

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sleds even for families with wagons. A wagon going down a steep hillside could prove difficult to control and there was always the danger of a wagon running over the animal pulling it. A sled was a safer alternative. Because of the friction between the runners and the ground, a sled was much less likely to slide out of control except on the very steepest slopes. In those situations, additional drag was provided by the use of a “rough lock,” a piece of heavy chain,wrapped around the front of a runner with the free end of the chain dragging under the runner to hopefully prevent the sled from going too fast. The bed of a sled was generally lower to the ground than that of a wagon so a sled was less likely to tip over on a steep slope The higher bed of a wagon had another disadvantage. When loading heavy objects, such as rocks to be

A story related to me more than 30 years ago

recounts how a farm sled has been an integral part of one family’s oral history. At the time the story was told to me I was responsible for the day to day operation of the national park’s Mountain Farm Museum located next to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.

One day, while working at the Farm Museum, I noticed an elderly lady standing at the entrance to the barn. She was talking to a group of ten or twelve people who, I found out later, were part of her extended family including some of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. As the rest of the family eventually moved on, the lady remained standing there, leaning on her cane, smiling and staring at one of the Farm Museum’s ground sleds. Curious as to why the sled seemed to hold her attention, I decided to ask. She said she was remembering a story from her own childhood that she had just been relating to her great-grandchildren.

She said late one fall, when she was was about five years old, her father decided to build a new sled for the farm. He gathered all the materials he needed for the project and after breakfast the next morning began work on the sled. She told me that next to their house was a small building, enclosed on three sides and open on the front, half of which was used as a wood shed, the other half her father used as a sort of a work shop. It was in front of this building that he began building the new sled.

Oh, and one thing you need to know,” she said, was that “our farm house was located along a single lane wagon road and was just a short distance from several churches, the local school, and the community general store and post office.”

Because of its location, people walking, on horse

back, or in wagons passed their house on a regular basis. That day, as her father worked, neighbors passing by stopped to visit and make suggestions as to features they thought should be incorporated into the new sled. Her father, she recounted, was a quiet man who would never intentionally offend anyone, so he dutifully included each neighbor’s suggestions into the sled. She said her father finished the sled just before supper that evening and promptly dragged it out to the edge of their yard so it was just five or six feet from the wagon road. It was the last time the sled would ever move. The next morning he began work on a second sled and just like the day before, it wasn’t long before a neighbor stopped to make a suggestion about its construction. This time, however, she said her father pointed to the sled at the edge of the road and said “That’s your damn sled over there. I built that one for everybody else, this one’s mine.”

She said as long as her father was alive the family never talked about the sled by the side of the road. It sat there, year after year, through the passing of her father and later her mother. Over the years as the wagon road became a two-lane dirt road then eventually a paved road, the sled still sat there slowly decaying and melting into the landscape.

Through the years as the family gathered for reunions, birthdays and funerals, the story of her father’s sled was retold for succeeding generations. Even some of the elderly lady’s great-grandchildren could tell the story although they weren’t exactly sure what a ground sled was. On their visit to the park’s Mountain Farm Museum their great-grandmother was able to show them one and once again tell them the story of her father’s designed-by-committee land sled. —T.R.

moved from a field, it was much easier to lift and load them onto the lower bed of a sled. Additionally, the runners of a sled, which were usually made from small trees, had a greater surface area and tended to slide over soft or muddy ground where the narrow wheels of a wagon might bog down or become stuck. Sleds could also be used in forests, snaking between trees, where a wagon might not be able to go. Money was also a factor. Almost anyone with some woodworking skills and a few basic tools could build a sled. The same was not true of wagons, especially the wheels, which required special tools and skills to build and meant that wagons had to be bought. In 1900 a small farm wagon might cost $20-$25. That doesn’t sound like a lot but in North Carolina in 1900 the average annual farm income was less than $200. A wagon would have been a major financial investment for many families.

Because of their ease of construction, sleds could be built for a variety of jobs on the farm. One of the simplest sleds was one referred to as a forked sled because it was made from the fork of a young tree or a large forked limb. The sides of the “V” of the fork formed the runners while the point of the “V” was the attachment point for the draft animal’s harness. A

Tom Robbins at the Oconaluftee Mountain Farm Museum uses a sled to move cornstalks from a field.

bed for this type of sled was created simply by nailing some boards across the legs of the “V.” In the North Carolina mountains the forked sled was often called a “lizard,” a name derived from its use in logging.

When used for logging, a crosspiece was attached to the top of the runners so it spanned the open end of the “V.” Two uprights, called standards, were placed in large holes drilled into the top of each runner near the end of each leg of the “V.” To move a log with a forked sled, the butt, or bottom end of the log was placed on the crosspiece between the standards and secured in place with a chain or rope. As the horse or mule pulled the forked sled, the log trailing behind it evidently reminded people of a lizard’s tail, hence the name.

While some farmers used one sled for a variety of purposes, others built a different sled for each job on the farm. For example, a sled used primarily for moving large rocks might have a low bed resting directly on the runners or it might even be built without runners so that the solid plank bed slid on the ground allowing large rocks to be rolled directly onto the bed.

Sleds used in the woods often had higher beds so they

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A boy works on a long land sled. Note the strongly curved runners, probably made from a sourwood tree. Sleds were better suited for the mountain terrain than wheeled wagons and easier to build and maintain.

could be pulled over rocks and stumps. A sled for hauling dirt or manure had high sides and was usually narrower than other sleds so it was easier to tip and dump the load.

To quote an individual who was already an old-timer in the mountains of North Carolina when interviewed in the 1970s, “Dad made all his sleds. We had one we called a log sled...then we had a rock sled. And then we had one...we hauled our hay and corn and stuff like that. The rock sled would have a solid bed...and was built low down so we could roll rocks up from the ground on it.”

Although sleds could vary greatly in size and construction, they often shared some common components including runners, a forepiece, the bed, and crosspieces sometimes called benches and standards. The runners were connected by the “forepiece,” a crosspiece that stretched between the fronts of the runners and was either mortised through or inset into the top of the runners. The forepiece had to be strong because it was the part to which the draft animal—horse, mule, or steer—was attached to the sled, so it was normally made from a tough wood like oak, hickory, or locust. In addition to the forepiece, flat pieces of wood, the crosspieces or benches, also spanned the gap between the runners.

To create the bottom of the sled’s bed, boards paralleling the runners were usually nailed to the crosspieces. Or, if a sled with a low bed was needed, the crosspieces might be nailed directly to the tops of the runners. However, these crosspieces, or benches, often rested on and were supported by the standards which were vertical pieces inserted into large holes drilled into the tops of the runners. Depending on the size of the sled there were usually four to six standards divided equally between the two runners. Because the standards also supported the sides of the sled, the taller the standards the higher the sides of the sled could be. Sleds with high sides were used for hauling things like corn and fodder while a sled for moving logs, fence rails, firewood, or cornstalks might have standards four to five feet high with no sides or ends on the bed.

Of the primary components that sleds had in common, none was as important as the runners. As one source put it, a “sled is only as good as it’s runners.” While a number of different hardwoods could be used for the runners, in the Southern mountains sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) was the preferred wood.

Sourwood is a small tree, mature ones are only about 50-60 feet tall, that has an unusual characteristic which makes it good for runners. While other woods had to be to be cut at an angle to create the upturned front of the runner, mature sourwood trees often have a natural bend about half-way to two-thirds of the way up the trunk. That natural bend, often just the shape needed for the front of a runner, along with the fact that the wood is dense, hard, close grained and not easily split, made sourwood ideal for sled runners. As one old-timer put it “made the runners out of sourwood mostly...Got them where they’d be crooked

up…if we couldn’t get sourwood, we got ash.”

The question sometimes arises as to why sourwoods have that natural bend. The tree is a member of the heath family, which includes shrubs such as rhododendron and mountain laurel. Some botanists have theorized that as the sourwood evolved from shrub to tree it still retained some growth patterns of shrubs as evidenced by the natural bend of the trunk.

However, even the toughest, hardest wood used for runners would eventually wear out. Sleds that were used frequently might need their runners replaced every six or seven months, especially if used primarily on rocky ground. One remedy to prevent them from wearing out so quickly was to “half-sole” the runners with a tough wood like oak or dogwood. The half soles were usually small diameter trees, sometimes split in half along their length. They were attached to the bottom of the runners with wooden pegs instead of nails since the pegs would wear away at the same rate as the half-sole. Once they became too worn, the halfsoles were simply removed and replaced with new ones. This process would extend the life of the sled runners for years. Because of their ease of construction and versatility, ground sleds remained in use on some farms well into modern times. Growing up in tobacco farming country in North Carolina in the 1950s and 60s, I remember muledrawn sleds still being used in tobacco fields even on farms with multiple tractors. Mules pulling narrow sleds with high sides were able to easily navigate the space between the rows of tobacco plants. As the tobacco leaves were harvested, or “primed” as it was called, they were placed in the sled, which, when full, delivered the leaves to the tobacco barn for curing. Of course as tobacco farming changed and became more mechanized, sleds were eventually no longer needed.

Despite sleds being so common in rural areas in the past, very few original ones remain and their importance is often overlooked. Because sleds were relatively easy and inexpensive to build, the construction of a new one would have caused little excitement for most families. At the same time, the purchase of a new wagon would have been a red letter day because of the sizable investment needed to acquire one. Where the wagon might be parked in the barn where it was protected from the elements, a sled might not receive the same care since it was so easy to replace. Today, farm sleds are mostly seen as artifacts, found primarily as static displays in agricultural exhibits, or if in use, reproduction sleds used as part of a demonstration at a historic site or museum. v Author Tom Robbins of North Carolina worked as a park ranger and historian in the Great Smokies and elsewhere for over 30 years. He has written many articles for the Smokies Guide and other publications. This is his first story for Smokies Life. “We just had sled roads. You couldn’t get over them with nothing but a sled..., and it’d go up over them big rocks and bumps.”